Who’s teaching your child?

Jul 30, 2015

So, the person teaching your child no longer has to have been trained in the essential skills of how children learn, classroom management, planning for the requirements of the curriculum or any of the other disciplines that professional teachers have had to master in order to gain “Qualified Teacher Status”.

I’ve worked in schools where they would routinely use unqualified teachers, in theory with support, to cover for long term maternity or sick leave. This left me with no doubt that, although the individuals were very willing, they were not prepared for the reality of ensuring that every child progresses in every lesson.

I will happily admit to being dissatisfied with the state system of education in England and that is why I now run the Southampton Tuition Centre. Initially, my concerns were centred around the constantly moving goal posts that resulted in insufficient time to plan by management and therefore unnecessary stress for the teachers and children. Now we’ve seen the dismantling of the National Curriculum and a drive to make all schools academies. The result? A more disjointed education system than has existed at any point in the last century.

We only employ qualified teachers to tutor children. We believe that if you want a professional outcome then you need to employ professionals. Our results certainly bear this out. If I was cynical, I would be grateful for this relaxation in rules allowing anybody to teach in state schools. It is likely to mean more children coming to me for tuition.

However, I’m not. It’s sad that yet again our future is being experimented with and it will be individual pupils who will suffer.